[ad_1]
Six days after Mercedes went 1-2 in Brazil george russellThe team failed to compete with the Red Bulls ferrari It was in the lead when it finished at six-tenths of a second.
Hamilton was fifth, three thousandths of a second ahead of sixth-placed Russell, as the layout of the Yas Marina circuit compensated for the weakness of the Mercedes W13 car.
Speaking to Sky Sports F1 after qualifying, Wolff joked: “Today I just heard it was World Toilet Day, so I thought it was something that could be put in the toilet.”
Wolff explained that Mercedes “didn’t get the job done” in the race against Ferrari, which locked onto the second grid with a buffer of just over two-tenths of a second.
“We took a step backwards and they took a small step forward,” he said. “We went for the high-downforce, high-drag concept to build a good car for tomorrow, but it was too slow on the straights. It gave nothing.”
The long straight in Abu Dhabi played to Red Bull’s strengths while overcoming the weakness of the W13’s drag, and Mercedes’ fortunes took a turn for the worse compared to last weekend.
But Wolff said the Abu Dhabi track had always been considered a tough one for Mercedes, given the nature of the car, and that its success at Interlagos could never translate to another good grade.
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W13
Photography: Zak Mauger / motorsport pictures
“We always knew we needed to improve and not set our expectations on the Brazilian result,” Wolff said.
“I think [Interlagos] It fit our car perfectly and everything went very, very smoothly. In Abu Dhabi, on our doom table, is one of our worst circuits. Not as catastrophic as high-speed orbits, but still not ideal, which we’ve seen today.
“We were too slow in qualifying times, lost six tenths on the straights, and it’s not easy to fix that by reducing the rear wing, because it’s just an aerodynamic efficiency that the car lacks. If we reduce the rear wing, we don’t No quick corners.”
Wolff was relieved by the fact that Mercedes’ simulation of Abu Dhabi was correct and wished the team a better performance over Sunday’s race distance.
“To some extent it’s good that there is a correlation between our simulations and the results, and that’s a positive I see,” Wolff said.
“I hope we have a strong car that is gentle on the tyres, even though we may not be able to overtake.”
[ad_2]
Source link